THOUSANDS of runners will pound the streets of Oxford city centre on Sunday at the 28th annual Town & Gown fun run.

The popular event, which has this year attracted more than 3,000 entrants, is set to raise about £50,000 for the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign (MDC).

As well as being the biggest Town & Gown run ever, this year’s race will probably be the last for event organiser Annie Jackson.

Miss Jackson, national race manager for MDC, plans to step down as the main organiser after 14 years at the helm.

She said: “I’ve had lots and lots of highlights and I’m very much hoping I can still be involved in some way in the future.

“The guy who dressed all in green one year was absolutely hilarious. He had completely painted himself green and was running in a G-string.

“Also the sight of a young guy with muscular dystrophy coming over the finishing line with his four helpers after being out on the course for four hours was really quite something.

“There’s also the rain, the sunshine, the water not turning up, the marquees not turning up — it has all been great fun and I hope this year is the best yet.”

The race, which will involve traffic being temporarily banished from the city centre, will see runners speed across High Street and down Cornmarket Street and Broad Street.

Organisers will set up the course at 4am to avoid the route being sabotaged by drunken revellers.

Miss Jackson added: “It has grown from 1,100 runners to more than 3,000 runners, which has meant changing the course a number of times so it can accommodate those numbers.

“We have moved the start from Norham Gardens to St Cross Road this year.

“The Norham Gardens residents have been so patient and tolerant.

“Not many people would want 3,000 people outside their front bedroom window on a Sunday morning.

“They have just been brilliant.

“We tell all the shops in the High Street and Cornmarket that we’re coming about a fortnight before and they just say bring it on — everyone gets behind it.

“One guy who lives on the route has just emailed me saying ‘it’s part of Oxford, people should be able to put up with it for one day a year’.”

tairs@oxfordmail.co.uk